Today’s article

“I hate what AI is doing to the minds and happiness of the young” — Katherine Rundell, The Guardian, August 8, 2026.

Original article: https://www.theguardian.com/books/ng-interactive/2026/aug/08/i-hate-what-ai-is-doing-to-the-minds-and-happiness-of-the-young-katherine-rundell-on-the-view-from-the-classroom

This is an opinion essay suitable for roughly IELTS 7.5+. Rundell argues that the value of education does not lie only in producing a correct essay or answer. Reading, writing, struggling with ideas, and learning to think independently are themselves part of the educational outcome.

A useful way to read the piece is to identify its structure: claim → evidence → analogy → conclusion. Also ask whether the argument establishes that AI itself harms learning, or instead that poorly designed use of AI can harm learning.

Vocabulary

  1. authoritarian — favoring strict obedience to a powerful central authority.
  2. destabilise — make a system or situation less stable.
  3. unprecedented — never having happened or existed before.
  4. surveillance — close observation or monitoring of people or activity.
  5. robust — strong and reliable; able to withstand difficulty.
  6. infiltrate — gradually enter or spread through a place or system.
  7. irreparable — impossible to repair or correct.
  8. cognitive offloading — transferring mental work to an external tool or system.
  9. mastery — comprehensive knowledge or skill in a subject.
  10. resilience — the ability to recover from or continue through difficulty.
  11. scrutiny — careful and critical examination.
  12. emancipation — freedom from restriction, control, or dependence.

Reading comprehension

1. Why does Rundell distinguish between producing a good essay and actually learning through writing?

Reference answer
Rundell’s point is that a polished essay is only the visible output. The educational value comes from the mental work required to produce it: organizing ideas, struggling with language, evaluating evidence, and revising one’s thinking. If AI supplies the finished product, a student can obtain the output without developing the underlying ability.

2. What does she mean by “cognitive surrender,” and how is it different from ordinary cognitive offloading?

Reference answer
Ordinary cognitive offloading uses tools to reduce limited or repetitive mental work, such as using a calculator for arithmetic or a calendar for remembering appointments. By cognitive surrender, Rundell means handing over the core intellectual activity itself. The concern is that AI may replace the effort through which judgment and understanding are developed.

3. Why does the author think poorer schools may be more vulnerable to excessive AI use?

Reference answer
Schools with fewer teachers, less individual attention, or tighter budgets may have stronger incentives to use AI as a substitute for human instruction. Wealthier students may continue to receive intensive human teaching while disadvantaged students receive more automated education, potentially widening educational inequality.

4. What is the purpose of her analogy comparing AI use with taking a bus instead of training for a race?

Reference answer
Taking a bus can get someone to the same destination as running, but it does not train the body for a race. Similarly, AI may help a student reach an answer quickly, but reaching the destination is not equivalent to developing the intellectual capacity required to get there independently.

5. Does her argument prove that AI itself harms learning, or mainly that poorly designed AI use harms learning?

Reference answer
A defensible interpretation is that the essay makes a stronger case against substitutive use of AI than against AI itself. Many harms arise when AI replaces reading, writing, discussion, or difficult thinking. AI used as feedback, tutoring, questioning, or a supplementary tool could still support learning without removing productive struggle.

Expression of the day

The process is the point.

A useful IELTS Writing adaptation:

In education, efficiency should not always be the primary goal, because the learning process itself develops resilience, judgment and independent thought.